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Fresh reality TV was last week's big Nielsens draw

Frazier Moore AP Television Writer

Posted:
08/19/2014 12:24:03 PM MDT

NEW YORK (AP) — New reality fare remained a big draw on a prime-time landscape jammed otherwise with reruns.

A double whammy of "America's Got Talent" gave NBC the week's two most-watched shows, and a triple helping of CBS' "Big Brother" rounded out the bottom of last week's Top 10, according to Nielsen figures released Tuesday.

A special edition of ABC's "20/20" focusing on the death of Robin Williams ranked sixth.

Meanwhile, CBS scored with new episodes of its scripted summer thriller "Under the Dome," which ranked seventh, and its crime drama, "Unforgettable," which ranked 11th. But the network's much-hyped sci-fi mystery, "Extant," starring Oscar-winner Halle Berry, continued to falter, ranking 17th with a lukewarm 5.7 million viewers.

Even so, CBS won the week, averaging 5.4 million viewers overall in prime time. It was CBS' eighth such win in nine weeks. NBC was runner-up with 4.9 million, followed by ABC with 3.9 million. Univision had 3.4 million, Fox had 3.0 million, Telemundo had 1.3 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and the CW had 910,000 viewers.

Among cable networks, Disney averaged 2.22 million viewers, followed by TNT with 2.16 million and Discovery with 2.12 million.

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.0 million viewers. ABC's "World News" ranked second with 7.7 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.2 million viewers.

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. Univision is owned by Univision Communications, Inc.

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